Day: 063Date: Sunday, 25 June 2017Start: Camped by the trail near Peavine Creek at Mile 1430.2, 4757 ftFinish: Camped by the trail at Mile 1448.8, 6122 ftDailyMiles: 18.6 PCT, + 0.4 to spring and backTotalPCTMiles: 908.5Weather: Very warm, humid and partly sunnyAccommodation: TentNutrition: Breakfast: Muesli Lunch: Gorp Dinner: Rehydrated Santa Fe rice with chicken and vegetablesAches: None in particularHighlight: None really. It was nice to finish at 5:00pm on a day when motivation was in short supply, and be in my tent before 7:00pm.Lowlight: I wasn’t enjoying my PCT hike in the late morning. The trail was frequently overgrown with head-high undergrowth, or eroded away, it was warm and humid, I was dripping sweat, and the bugs were biting. It wasn’t hard to think of a dozen places I would rather be, and the prospect of another three plus months hiking was hard to digest. By the time I have my next day off, Dunsmuir, I will have been hiking at least eight full days in a row, and I think that is too much. I should have taken at least part of a day off at Burney as originally planned, but I was trying to make up some time. Lesson learned. Pictures: Click here

I was hiking soon after 6:30am on a sultry morning with the bugs biting. I had calculated that another three days of 23 miles a day, will get me to Interstate Hwy 5 and a short hitch to Dunsmuir on Tuesday evening. An attractive target, but a little daunting.

As it turned out, the morning was a struggle hiking because of the trail condition and my own lack of motivation. Three more days like this didn’t appeal. The trail was passing through the Shasta National Forest, and although there were some beautiful wooded sections, at other times it passed across scrubby clear-felled areas where the trail tended to be overgrown and eroded. There were some good views of the ever-closer Mount Shasta, a classic mountain if ever there was one, as well across vast stretches of forests and mountains, but mostly it was clearings or the green tunnel.

In late morning I decided that it was more important to stop at a reasonable hour than notch up a 23-mile day (I have plenty of food if I don’t make Dunsmuir on Tuesday night), and that made the rest of the day more relaxed, though as the trail climbed through 6000 ft large patches of snow appeared, making for slow going, and I’m camped in a saddle near a particularly big snow bank tonight. Unhappily, neither the wind nor the snow has kept the biting insects away and I was very happy to get into my tent. While I was eating dinner, Silver Fox, a Swiss girl hiker I had met a few times a month back arrived from the north, now hiking south on the PCT. She had skipped the High Sierras and made her way to Ashland to start hiking south. I suspect she will hit a lot more snow than she hopes.

4 Responses to 170625 – Two months and 900 miles….but who’s counting?

Keep up the great work Dave, we are all so impressed and inspired by your efforts. Better things are to come for sure. You are living the dream – even though it sometimes seems more like a nightmare than a good one hey.

Hi Dave, great effort —-2 months and 900 miles. Remember eat the elephant one mouth full at a time. You don’t have to contemplate the next 3 months just each day as it comes.
We are barracking for you, Love your best sister!

Hi Dave. You are an inspiration. Love reading your blog, and getting a taste of the highs and even the lows, of your trip. I’m sure there will be plenty of great days ahead to counter the hot, sweaty insect riddled ones. Endurance is your thing it seems, so I know you will stick with it, and appreciate the challenge, the scenery and the adventure.

You’re an amazing bloke Dave. This sounds like the biggest challenge you’ve taken on but I still love telling the story of your Three Peaks adventure when you were repeatedly wrenched from the depths of sea-sickness to bolt up and down mountains. The bugs are clearly taking the edge off and probably right up there with some of your previous wildlife encounters. Bears and wild Brumbies come to mind. Good luck Dave, your determination, resilience and stoic mantra are inspirational (but come home in one piece). Love Al.